Ep 4 – The Hunt

 

Tenchi Muyo and Dragonball Z is owned/copyrighted by their respective companies.

 

I’m Russell Piper, and what you’re about to read is my first real attempt at a fanfiction.  It’s based around Tenchi Universe (Tenchi TV) and the OVA so most of the main characters you’ve seen from there will appear here as well.  It also crosses a bit with Dragonball Z with the existence of Dragonballs and immensely powerful warriors.  Ryoko and Tenchi had finally chosen to be together, and Aeka is still living at the house for now.  You’ll see when it happens.  Anyway, I’ll stop flapping my yap and let you get right to the story.  Enjoy!  Send all hate mail / fan mail to russael@mediaone.net.

 

            “No… please don’t…  I don’t know where the Dragonballs are.  I’ve never even heard of them until you brought them up!  Please let me go!”  The hapless victim continued to struggle against the iron grip Zorpheus had around his neck.

            “Well, gee, that’s too bad.  That means you’re useless to me.  Get out of my face.”  Zorpheus took the man and flung him into a brick wall, where the man smashed his head against it.  His lifeless body crumpled to the ground.  “Aw dammit, I didn’t want to do that.  Oh well.  Better not leave a mess.”  Zorpheus raised his hand and fired a small ki blast, vaporizing the man’s body.  The crowd that gathered around Zorpheus in the street was growing in size.  Many people were watching him in complete terror.  Sirens wailed in the distance.

            Zorpheus looked back to the crowd.  “Do any of you people know about the Dragonballs?”  The crowd all gasped in fear.  “If you divulge what I want, I’ll leave.”  Nobody made a move toward him, but there were a few people who whispered to each other.  Zorpheus waited a few more moments, and then started losing his patience.  “Do any of you morons know about the Dragonballs?  This is the last time I’m asking.”  The crowd began to back away.  Nobody came forward.

            “Dammit,” Zorpheus muttered to himself.  He scratched his mass of black hair with his prosthetic right hand and then turned away from the crowd.  Placing two fingers to his forehead, he transported himself to another city many miles away.  The crowd continued to chatter amongst themselves as half a dozen squad cars arrived.  Police officers jumped out of their cars and looked around.  Several people from the crowd came up to the officers.

            “What’s going on here?  What happened?”

            A young girl walked up to the officer.  “There was a man here a moment ago.  He just vanished after killing someone.  He said he was looking for something called Dragonballs.”

            The officer knelt down.  “Can you tell us what he looked like?”

            “Yes.  We all got a good look at him.  He was pretty tall, about six feet tall.  He was wearing a blue cloak, heavy black army type boots, and a large belt around his waist.  He was very muscular, and had a couple of implants on him too.  His entire right arm was artificial, at least I think it was, and one of his eyes looked strange.  It kept making little noises as it moved.  His other eye had a red iris.  His hair was tall and black too.”

            The officer was busy scribbling all of this information down on his notepad.  “Do you know anything else?  Was he carrying any weapons?”

            A young boy came out of the crowd.  “No, he didn’t have any weapons, but he somehow fired a blue ball of energy from his hand, vaporizing the person.  He seemed incredibly strong too.  If you look at that wall over there, you can see a crack running through it now.  That happened after that stranger threw the man into it.”

            Walking over to the wall, the officer examined it, and noticed a few bloodstains on it.  He called another officer over and told him to take a few samples of blood to have them analyzed.  He turned back toward the young boy and girl from the crowd.  “Is there anything else we should know about?”

            “That’s all we were able to hear,” said the young girl.  “He just put two fingers to his head and vanished.  We have no idea which way he went.”

            The officer cocked his eyebrow slightly.  “Okay.  Thanks for all your help.  Do you need a ride home?  One of my officers will be glad to give you a lift.”

            “No thanks, I just live right over there.”  The girl pointed to a set of apartments that were just down the street.

            The officer smiled.  “Okay, thanks again for your help.  Now run along home.”  The little girl smiled and ran off.  The boy also turned and ran off with her.  The officer turned back toward the other policemen who were mostly standing around, making sure the crowd didn’t get out of control.  He sighed, and walked over to his car and got on the radio.

            “Dispatch, this is Murphy,” he said as he keyed the radio.

            “Go ahead.”

            “We’ve had some sort of fight here on Melphia Street.  We have one victim, unidentified.  The man who did this did not mention any name, but we do have a description.”

            “Okay.  Come back to the station and fill out a report.”

            “Yes ma’am.  We need to keep a lid on this.”

            “Roger that.”

            Murphy sighed to himself.  He turned back toward the other officers.  “Hey guys, I need to head back to the station.  Take care of everything here, okay?”

            One of the lackeys turned.  “Yes sir.  We’ll be fine here.”

            Murphy started the car and took off.  “Today is going to be a long day.”  Reaching over to his briefcase, he pulled out a scouter.  “I never thought I’d have a reason to use one of these things again.”  He put it over his left ear, as it stuck itself to his head.  He pushed the button and the scouter came to life.  It did a quick self-diagnostic, and then started scanning.  It found a ki signature many miles off.  It started to calculate a power level, but it displayed ERROR on the little window.  A second later, the scouter overloaded and then exploded.  Slamming on the brakes to his car from the shock, Murphy jumped out and brushed the debris out of his seat.  “Holy cow.  These scouters are supposed to be able to measure a ki level of up to ten million.  How can anybody have more power than that?”  His hands started shaking.  He quickly got back into his car, hit the siren, and drove like a madman back to the station to warn everybody.

 

            Zorpheus appeared on top of a large building.  Walking over to the edge, he looked down and read a sign that was on the ground.  It said, “Public Library.”  Smiling at his dumb luck, he moved to another wall of the library, which had an alleyway running along the side.  He jumped off the roof and landed lightly on his feet.  Coming around to the front, he went inside.  The place was quite massive.  Books of all types were lined up all along the walls and there were many rows of shelves loaded with books too.  Walking over to the librarian’s desk, which was currently vacant, he stood quietly and waited for his or her return.  He didn’t wait long, since she was nearby, stocking the shelves with returned books.  She walked back to her desk and sat down.

            She studied him for a moment.  “Hello.  Can I help you with anything?”

            “I hope so.  I’m looking for some books on a specific type of history.  Do you know if this library has any books on the history of the Saiyans?”

            “I’m not sure, but you can have a look at that computerized card catalog over there.  You can search for books by title, author, or subject.  You can get pretty specific with it too.”

            Zorpheus looked to his right and saw the terminal.  “Okay, thanks a lot.”  He walked over to the terminal and sat down.  The librarian stared at him until he sat down, then she got up and resumed putting the books back on the shelves, occasionally glancing over at him.  His clothes were really out of the ordinary.

            Zorpheus had been to several dozen libraries in the past, and had found nothing on the Saiyans.  However, most planets that he has visited were not even capable of interstellar flight.  No spaceships, no extraterrestrial communications equipment, no nothing.  This planet also didn’t have anything of that sort, so his expectations were low.

            Looking at the screen and taking the mouse in his right hand, he clicked on the subject field and entered the word, “Saiyan.”  A moment later two results came up.  He started to perspire, but decided to take a look at both books.  Grabbing a slip of paper and a pencil that were nearby, he wrote down their catalog numbers and stood up.  He was fortunate to get that many results.  He felt a little excited, so he quickly walked down the aisles in search of the books.  Reaching where the first book was located, he searched up and down for it.  However, the book wasn’t there.  Determined, he looked for it a second time.  Once again, he came up empty.  He growled to himself and then went to look for the second book.  Walking to another aisle, he stopped where the book was located.  This time he smiled when he found a rather thick, old, dusty book, which was titled, “Vegeta – Planet of the Apes.”  He scowled at the title, but he walked over to a table and sat down.  Flipping through a couple of pages and reading a couple chapter titles, he noticed one that caught his eye.  It said, “Known Super Saiyans.”  Quickly thumbing to that chapter, he started reading.  It mentioned how often Super Saiyans were born, and it listed names of known Super Saiyans.  Some of the last entries included Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, Goten, Bra, and Pan.  It also listed where they lived.  Earth.  Zorpheus raised an eyebrow in curiosity.  Why in the world were so many Super Saiyans on planet Earth?  There isn’t anything special about that planet… is there?  Zorpheus started feeling anticipation.  He decided to depart for Earth as soon as possible.  He took the book to the desk and set it down, then walked outside to the alleyway.  He put two fingers to his forehead and teleported himself to his spacepod.  Opening it up and setting down inside of it, he keyed the commands to activate the computer.

            “Computer Ready.”  It responded in its feminine voice.

            “Computer, how long will it take to get from this planet to planet Earth, non stop?”

            No response.  Zorpheus slapped his head and configured the computer for voice commands.

            “Voice commands ready.”

            “Computer, how long will it take to get from this planet to planet Earth, non stop?”

            “Approximately ten months.”

            “Okay.  Plot a course for Earth and depart.”

            “Affirmative.”  The ship started rumbling a little as the engines were engaged.  The spacepod then shot up through the atmosphere at break-neck speed leaving a white vapor trail as it adjusted its course toward the Earth.

            “About a year to wait for immortality, assuming the Earth has the Dragonballs.”  Zorpheus had a huge grin on his face.  “Nothing can stop me now.”  His laughing rang out inside the spacepod as it hurtled through space.

 

            “Washu, what exactly are you going to do to me?”  Russ said, squirming against the restraints.

            “Well, I need to take some blood samples first.”  Washu produced a syringe and an alcohol pad from her pocket.  Russ looked at the needle with horror.

            “What?!  A needle?!?!  I’m not sick!  I don’t need a needle!  Get away from me with that thing!”  Russ started kicking against the restraining globe, trying to break free without tearing it to pieces.  Washu stopped in her tracks and started to perspire.

            “Don’t worry, you won’t feel a thing.”  She said softly and with a smile.

            “Yeah right!  That’s what they all say!  Get this thing to release me right now!”

            “Oh, quit your bellyaching.  You’ll be fine.”  Washu walked up to Russ and rubbed his arm with the alcohol pad.  However, Russ was going to have no part of it, as he ripped the left restraint right off of the globe.  He reached over with his free hand and broke the hand that was holding his other arm.  He did the same for the ones holding his legs.  Washu just looked on in shock.  Nobody should’ve been able to break out of those restraints!

            Russ grabbed his clothes and quickly put them on.  “Tell me how to get out of here.  I don’t need your help if this is what you’re going to do to me.”  Russ was really mad.  Doing things like that was a big mistake with him.

            Washu frowned.  “Okay, you win.  I won’t do anything without your permission first, okay?  Will that be good enough?”

            Russ calmed down a little.  “Don’t you dare try to restrain me like that again.  I don’t know where you got it in your mind that you could do that to someone, but don’t do it to me.”

            “Tenchi never minded it.  That’s just a device that I use to examine people.  It can do a lot, but it can’t take the place of solid samples like a blood sample.  It can do hair samples and other physical samples.  It can determine certain layer patterns, among other things.”  Washu looked over at her machine, which was now a wreck.  “I guess I have to fix that up now for the next time I need it.”

            “Humph.  Sorry about wrecking it, but I can’t stand needles.  Also, next time, tell me when you’re going to use that globe thing and I should be more cooperative, instead of having it sneak up behind me like that.”

            “Okay, you have a deal.”  Washu smiled.  “Would you mind answering a few questions for me?”

            Russ folded his arms.  “What do you want to know?”

            “What race are you?”

            “My race is known as Saiya-jin, or Saiyan.”

            Washu looked at him with surprise.  “Are you serious?  You’re a true, full-blooded Saiyan?  I thought that race was extinct!”

            “It almost was, but that’s a long story.  How in the world did you know about Saiyans?”

            “Wow, okay.  Well, that explains your extraordinary strength.”  Washu looked at his waist and ignored his question.  “Could you turn around?  Do you have a tail?”

            “No I don’t.  That was cut off a long time ago and has never grown back.”

            “Oh, okay.  How strong are you?”

            “I am very strong.”

            Washu smiled a little.  “Aww, can’t you be more specific?”

            Russ looked at her, and tried to judge her ki level.  “Well, I can sense your ki level.  But to put it simply, my own ki level is way higher than you’d ever imagine.”

            “I don’t know.  I can imagine quite a bit.  I’ve got a machine over here that can tell me how much ki you have.  Would you mind if I used it to scan you?”

            Russ looked at her.  “As long as it doesn’t require me to remove my clothes or poke needles into me.”

            Washu laughed.  “No, nothing like that.”  She walked over to the machine and started it up.  “I’ll have it scan me first.”  She pushed a button and focused the targeting scanner on herself.  It hummed a moment, and then gave a number.  “Seven thousand, nine hundred, sixty five.  Not bad.”

            Russ looked at her for a moment.  “She must be using a different scale than we do.  From what I can sense, she’d only be about a hundred at best,” Russ muttered to himself.

            “Now, it’s your turn.”  She started to focus the machine’s scanner on Russ.  Russ quickly lowered his power level to that of a normal human.  Washu looked over at Russ the moment he did that.  The machine hummed a moment, and then gave a number again.  “You’re only at about thirty five.  You should be much higher than that.  Weird though, it felt like the energy you were producing just vanished.”

            “It did.  I’m suppressing my ki.  Unfortunately, machines like that can be fooled quite easily.  You also seem to use a different scale to measure ki levels.  I also have a ki detector, called a scouter.  It’s a little portable device that can give a number according to how much energy a person can produce.”

            “That explains the strange sensation I felt before I started scanning.  Interesting.”

            “Strange how you can also sense a ki level.  I thought only Yosho could do that.”  Russ cocked his eyebrow slightly and leaned up against a machine that was nearby.

            “Yes, it’s one of the traits I have.  It’s not very useful, but hey, it’s there.  Would you mind bringing your scouter over here?  I’d love to take a look at it.”

            “I suppose.  Just don’t break it or anything.  I’ve only got two of them.”

            “I’m not going to break anything.  I’m a genius!  Geniuses don’t break things, we fix them and make them better!”  Washu grinned from ear to ear.

            Russ shrugged his shoulders.  “Okay, I’ll bring it over in a little bit.  Is there anything else you’d like to know?”

            “There are a million things I’d love to know about you.”  Washu blushed a little.  “Are you available?”

            Russ slid off the machine he was leaning on and toppled to the floor.  He quickly stood back up, blushing all the while.  “I um…  I don’t have a girlfriend, if that’s what you’re asking.  But you’re too young for me, and honestly, I’m not interested in a relationship right now.  I have more important things to do first.”

            Washu looked disappointed.  “Okay.  Besides, Aeka looks to be very attracted to you at the moment.  She’s had a lot of bad luck with men.  She has been, more or less, dumped twice.  On Jurai, she was to marry her half brother, Yosho.”  Russ looked on with interest.  “And again, she was rejected by Tenchi in favor of Ryoko.”

            Russ looked down to the floor.  “I’m sorry to hear that.  However, I cannot get involved in a relationship right now.  I may at a later time.  I don’t mind being friends with everybody, but a relationship is currently out of the question.”

            “Why?”

            Russ sighed.  “You were all told that I’m here on vacation, but in reality, I’m here to defend the Earth against someone who wants something on it.  This cannot be allowed.  I can’t get more specific than that.  I’m sorry.”  Russ looked up into Washu’s green eyes.  “I could be killed.”

            Washu looked worried.  “Okay, everybody has secrets that they’d like to keep.  So anyway, you want a gravity room to train in, right?”

            “Yeah, something like that.  If possible, do you think you could make a portable version?  One that I can wear on my arm or something that only affects the gravity around me?”

            “Oh, I think I can.  It’ll take some work, but we’ll see what I can come up with.”

            “Okay, wonderful!  Thanks a lot, Washu.”  Russ smiled.

            “One more thing Russ.”

            “What’s that?”

            “Please call me little Washu, alright?”  Russ’ eyes bulged a moment, and then he started laughing.

            “Yes ma’am.”  He turned around to leave the lab, snickering to himself.

 

            Ryoko was snoozing peacefully on the beam in the living room.  After lunch, she had grown quite sleepy so she felt like taking a nap.  Feeling rested, she finally stirred and woke up.  She sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes once more, yawned and stretched, and glanced around the room.  Nobody was in the living room with her, so she decided to take it upon herself to get her things moved into Tenchi’s room.  Since it was something she really wanted, she felt ambitious enough to take care of it herself.  She floated through a couple walls and landed with a light thud in her room.  It was late afternoon now, but there was still plenty of light filtering in through her window.  She groaned to herself when she actually took a look at the mess she left in her room.  It appeared as if a tornado, a hurricane, and an earthquake hit the room all at once.  Various items of sorts were piled on her desk, her bed was a wreck from the night before, and her other various belongings including clothes were strewn all over the floor.

            “Oh man, what a mess.  I know what would make this easy though.”  She smiled and used telekinesis to lift everything at once.  The mass of clothes and other items came up off the floor and off the furniture.  Ryoko floated up into the air a little, and she and the mass of items floated out of the room.  A moment later, she reached Tenchi’s room, and she floated through the doorway.  Tenchi was inside, working at his desk.  He turned around in surprise.

            “Ryoko!  What are you doing?”

            The mass of clothes and other things dropped to the floor when Ryoko broke her concentration.  “I’m moving in!  What did you expect?”  She looked insulted.

            “Oh man, what a mess.  It’s going to take us a few hours to put this stuff away.”  Tenchi stood up and walked over to Ryoko.  She grabbed him in a hug.

            “Don’t worry about it.  We have all the time in the world to put this stuff away.”  She squeezed him tightly.

            “Okay, okay.  Geez.  Well, lets start putting it away anyway.  I don’t like having a huge mess of stuff to trip over in the morning.”

            Ryoko groaned and released Tenchi.  “Oh, okay.  Do you have enough closet space for my clothes?”

            “I think so.”  He walked over to his closet and slid the door open.  “Yeah, there’s plenty of space in here.  Well, hand me your clothes and I’ll hang them up.”

            “Okay.”  She walked over to the mass of clothes, picked them all up, and tossed them all at Tenchi at once.

            “Whoa!”  He yelled as he was bombarded with all her clothes.  “Ryoko!  Come on, use some common sense.”

            Ryoko started cracking up while looking at him.  Tenchi had some of her undergarments on his head, which made him look totally ridiculous.  Realizing how he must’ve appeared, he smiled and laughed too.  One at a time, Tenchi hung her clothes in his closet.  He was careful to hang the lightweight stuff on one side and her heavier stuff on the other.  Ryoko watched him dreamily.

            “You could help you know.  Why not put away some of that other stuff you brought along?”  Tenchi said, pointing to the mess of magazines and cosmetics that were lying on the floor.

            Ryoko sighed, but grabbed all her magazines up in a neat pile and set them on Tenchi’s bookcase.  She then picked up the rest of her items and put them on his desk, trying to bring some order to the chaos she was causing.  She looked pitifully at Tenchi, who in turn just smiled and snickered.  Finally finishing hanging all of Ryoko’s clothes in his closet, he came over to her and helped her sort the mess she made on his desk.  Her cheeks turned rosy as she smiled and leaned against him.  Tenchi smiled as she did that.

            “Thank you Tenchi.”

            “You’re welcome.  What do you say we go talk to Washu about getting us a bigger bed?”

            “I’d like that.  Let’s go.”  Ryoko took Tenchi’s hand in her own as they left his room.

 

            After several hours, Aeka had finally finished the monster load of laundry that needed to be done.  She had sorted everybody’s clothes and piled them into separate laundry baskets, and had cleaned up the washing machine.  She placed them at the back porch for everybody to come get their own basket.  She sighed in relief.  Sasami had stopped helping her a while ago to go take care of something else that required her attention.  Finally free of her chores, she started walking toward the stairway that led up to the shrine.  It was now fairly late in the day, with the sun setting over the mountains.  She walked slowly, lost in thought.  A soft meow was heard behind her, causing her to turn around.

            “Hello Ryo-Ohki.  Do you want to take a walk with me?”  She said, smiling.  Ryo-Ohki meowed in return and bounded up by Aeka’s feet.  She started up the stairs, occasionally slowing down and admiring the natural beauty she was surrounded in.  She wished Tenchi would take these walks with her.  She felt so lonely at times.  She looked down at the cabbit as it lightly bounced beside her.  She smiled, and then looked off to the setting sun, letting her mind wander.  She wondered about her existence, about why she was alone, with no companion to stay by her side, to hold her when she was feeling down, and to love her as a woman.  She thought about Tenchi and Ryoko, and how happy both seemed to be together, as they laughed and had a good time with each other.

            Aeka took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “It’s such a beautiful evening.”  Ryo-Ohki meowed in agreement.  They both continued to slowly walk up the stairs, finally coming to the path where Tenchi’s training area was located, just a little deeper into the forest.  She stopped and looked at the worn path for a moment, remembering the first time she walked down it.  She remembered sneaking up on Tenchi and Yosho as they dueled with their wooden swords, and that was when she smiled and laughed for the second time since her arrival on planet Earth.  After Tenchi had swung his sword at the dangling stick and Yosho warned him about losing his footing, Tenchi slipped and fell over.  Yosho then told him that he still stunk.  Aeka giggled again at remembering that, but her feelings turned somber again as she thought about Tenchi and Ryoko.  She knew she’d eventually have to let him go.  She started down the path, looking at the variety of flowers that lined both sides as Ryo-Ohki continued to follow. 

            Aeka finally approached the training area, and caught by surprise, she saw Russ standing in the middle of it, looking off into the distance.  She quickly darted behind a tree as Ryo-Ohki looked on curiously.  Russ took a deep breath, and then blurred out of sight.  Aeka quickly looked around the clearing, but didn’t see him.  She then looked up, and saw Russ hovering above the trees.  She watched with awe as he started a flurry of punches and kicks, moving so fast that she could barely see him.  He then blurred out again and reappeared on the ground, continuing his exercise.  She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.  Who was this guy?  How in the world could he move so fast?  Not even Ryoko could do what he was performing.  She continued to watch in amazement as he moved all over the training area, punching, kicking, and performing all sorts of martial arts.  It was truly incredible to watch.  She continued to observe him for a few more minutes as he finally came to a stop in the middle of the clearing again.  He wasn’t even breathing hard.  Finally gathering her wits about her, she stepped out from behind the tree.

            “Um, Russ?”  Aeka said quietly.  Russ nearly jumped out of his skin when she came up behind him, unnoticed.

            “Oh!  Aeka!  You scared the daylights out of me.”  He calmed down a bit and grinned.  “I was hoping to keep this a secret from everybody, but it doesn’t look like I’m doing that good of a job.  First Yosho discovers me, then Washu found out about me, and now here you are.”  He laughed.  Ryo-Ohki bounded up to both of them and meowed a few times.  Russ smiled at her.

            “That was amazing.  How can you move so fast?  How can you fly too?”

            “Well, my speed is relative to my ki level.  What you saw there, for me, was actually quite slow.  You could just barely see my arms and legs, right?  I can actually move much faster than that.  And as far as me flying, that’s a special ability I learned many years ago when I learned to control my ki.”

            “I see.  I also have some ability with my Jurai power.  I can make a forcefield that can deflect just about anything that hits it.”

            “Really?  Can I see?”

            “Sure.”  Aeka took a few steps back and threw her arms to her side as a dome of energy surrounded her.  She looked up at Russ and smiled.

            “That’s pretty useful.”  He walked up to it and rested his hand on it and put a little pressure on it.  Aeka winced a little as she strained to keep the shield up.  Russ noticed it and then pressed a little harder.  Aeka took a deep breath and continued to hold the shield against his hand.  Russ then put a whole lot more pressure on the shield, which caused Aeka to waver.  He stopped after seeing that.  Aeka dropped her shield as she breathed heavily.

            “Wow, that was just your hand.  You must be very strong.  That shield can repel most anything that touches it as long as my Jurai power holds out.”  Aeka slowed her breathing down a bit and relaxed, giving her exhausted body a break.

            Russ watched her curiously.  “If you want, I can teach you some other tricks with ki.  I can teach you to fly, and I can also help you to get stronger.”

            Aeka looked into Russ’ black eyes and smiled.  “Could you really do that?”

            “Yeah.  It takes some practice, but I’m sure we could each teach something to the other.”

            Aeka continued to smile as she looked at him.  He was so nice and friendly, and was already looking to help others.  He didn’t seem lazy at all, and not only that, he sure was nice to look at.  She blushed a little upon thinking that.  She didn’t feel as lonely as she stood across from him, as he smiled back.

            Russ noticed her looking at him with rosy cheeks and realized she must be thinking of something along the lines of a date.  “Aeka, what are you thinking about,” he asked, softly.

            “Oh!  I’m sorry.  I was just thinking about how nice and friendly you are.”

            “Listen.  I don’t want to break your heart or anything of that sort, so I figured I might as well tell you now before you start getting any ideas.  I’m not looking for a relationship.”  Aeka’s heart dropped like a ton of bricks.  Her facial expression changed slightly, to one of sadness.  “At least, not now.  I need to keep focused about the task at hand.”  Aeka’s heart continued to slip into depression, but she managed a fake smile.

            “That’s okay.  I understand.”  She sniffled a little and turned away.  Russ never expected that.  He suddenly felt guilty at saying what he did.  He walked over to her and carefully turned her around, then put his hands on her shoulders.

            “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.  I… think I know how you feel.  I’ve seen the way you were behaving around Tenchi and Ryoko earlier today at lunchtime.  You’re lonely, aren’t you…?”  He gazed into her violet eyes, which had tears welling up in them.

            She sniffled again.  “I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.  Every time I’ve tried to give my heart to someone, they’ve brushed it aside, like a flower petal in the breeze.  First it was my brother Yosho, and then, Tenchi.”  A single tear fell down her cheek.

            Russ felt really bad for her, as he brushed her tear away with his thumb.  He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her warmly.  “I’m sorry.  I had no idea.  I’ll do the best that I can to keep you company.  And then, after my mission here is complete, we’ll see about what we can do together.  How’s that?”

            Aeka felt hopeful and happier.  “Would you promise me that?”

            Russ took in a shaky breath.  “Yes.  I promise.”  He felt a lump in his throat, but he felt better after telling her that.

            The sun vanished behind the distant mountains when dusk overtook the land, as Russ continued to hold Aeka in his arms.